


The Game

by atomicmayo



Series: Dewmie Fictober 2019 Fills [17]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Awkward Dates, Break Up, Crushes, Dating, Jealousy, Lovers to Friends, M/M, Manipulation, Multi, One-Sided Relationship, Pining, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2020-12-24 17:37:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21103361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomicmayo/pseuds/atomicmayo
Summary: From the Fictober 2019 Prompt, "There's just something about them/him/her." Jamie and Harold Smiley are dating. Sort of. Once.





	The Game

Jamie the Mailman had asked out Harold Smiley, sole proprietor of Funland Arcade and Amusement Park. Harold said yes - and instantly felt something was off ever since.

It wasn't the timing; Harold had been on his own for quite a few years now. Jamie wasn’t exactly typical for Harold, but he wasn’t someone Harold would exclude from his world of possibilities, either. Jamie was a little younger than what Harold was used to, but that was hardly Jamie’s fault - there was no one quite around Jamie's age in town.

Beach City had a pretty sad dating pool generally, just because of the small number of humans around. Combine that with trying to narrow down the same pool to men who might be interested in Harold? At this point, it was a group of one - and apparently that one was Jamie. Still, Jamie was cute, friendly and driven - and they knew each other fairly well already. Why not?

There was still something off about it, though. Jamie's romantic moods were infamous - among them his well-known fiasco with Garnet a few years ago, and more recently his special one man show featuring "an evening of song and seduction". Both incidents left the whole town either stunned, eye-rolling or snickering for weeks. If Jamie was to make any sort of romantic overture toward him, Harold figured it would include something to over-the-top, or at least highly wooable - love poetry, presents, _something_.

Instead, Jamie walked by the arcade on his mail route one afternoon, stopped for a bit of the usual Friendly Acquaintance Level banter, and gently asked to have dinner with Harold sometime. With smiles and an exchange of phone numbers, that was that.

And dinner happened! Exactly once, accompanied by more inexplicable... "offness", as Harold put it to himself internally.

Jamie had been very particular about the time and place for some reason - 6:15 at Fishstew Pizza. Jamie wanted them at the front of the restaurant at a table as close to the windows as possible. The friendly chit-chat that normally occurred naturally between arcade owner and mailman soon turned awkward during their date. Harold had been optimistic that their common trait of being born performers - comedy for Harold, acting for Jamie - would give them something to connect over, but that soon fell flat. Mutual, well-intentioned but clunky attempts at conversation kept happening in fits and starts throughout the appetizer and dinner. It wasn't quite nervousness Harold was picking up from Jamie, either. Jamie kept glancing at the window when he wasn't trying to talk. He even failed to follow the bead of Harold's conversation a couple times. Every time Jamie looked out the window, it was practically over his shoulder, like he was watching for something or someone on a particular end of the boardwalk.

Harold initially gave Jamie the benefit of the doubt. After all, Harold had been out of the game for a long time. His last boyfriend, Quentin, had broken and reset most of what his expectations of what a relationship could or should be - and there had been no one else since then. Harold found himself questioning exactly what he wanted out of a man ever since; what was "normal". He started down a train of thought about all _this_ being normal as he and Jamie left the restaurant and wandered down the boardwalk a ways. The combination of unease and oncoming indigestion from the Fishstew Special churned in his chest as he fought to be optimistic. Maybe this is what dating now days is supposed to be! Things are awkward! The other guy is even a little insulting and inattentive, but you keep pushing forward until you hit some sort of connection!

They were walking toward the arcade after leaving the restaurant and Jamie looked back once, twice, then three times - each time seeming more and more disappointed. Harold finally felt it was time to drop a hint.

"You forget something back at the pizza place?" He asked innocently.

"Huh? Oh, uh. No," Jamie looked behind them a fourth time. He suddenly gasped and pulled Harold closer. Jamie was smaller than Harold, but fit - and it knocked Harold off his balance. Jamie clung to his arm with fingers spread wide and leaned in close.

"I didn't forget a thing!" He cooed just a little too loudly; a little too much syrup in his tone. The something Jamie had been waiting for finally made itself known.

Harold watched as Bill Dewey passed by. He was busy wincing his way through a phone call with a drop of sweat at his brow, but noticed them enough to to give a cursory nod without stopping. His eyes tightened at the boardwalk under his feet as he stalked by, mumbling something like "yes, Barb. Next Tuesday. Yes, I'll bring the macaroni. Yes, yes..."

Jamie batted his eyelashes and pressed against Harold, but was staring at Bill the whole time. He soon slumped a little as Bill showed no reaction and speed-walked past them. Suddenly, Harold's offness had a name.

"Right, I get it," Harold gently pried Jamie's arms from him. Jamie took them back and brought them up to his chest, recoiling. He managed a long, wandering 'uhhh' that sounded vaguely like a balloon deflating before Harold decided to help him along.

"I'm not actually the one you're after, is it," Harold said after a beat. Jamie's face fell as he heard it. 

Jamie began to ramble - high-voiced and looking pained. "Harold, I’m so sorry, there is just... _something_ about him! I thought if I started going out with someone else, he might get jealous enough to finally do something. He and I have been doing this weird," he clutched at the air uselessly, "_song and dance_ for a couple years now and just as I thought I might have some sort of chance with him, Barb snatched him away from me! It's like he's interested but _afraid_ of me for some reason." 

Jamie seemed to finally acknowledge the man in front of him wrapped his arms around himself defensively.

"Don't get me wrong, I was genuinely willing to give it a try with you! It's just - I can’t move on to somebody else without getting a real answer from him, even if it's a no. If you want to try after that, I-"

Harold sighed now. He was a little surprised at his own lack of resentment; it was just the wrong thing to say. They had stopped in front of Harold's arcade. Blue and purple lights flashed against their faces from old arcade games.

"I definitely know how it is to not get a sense of closure with somebody, but I’m not the type to wait in the wings, Jamie - I’m sure you know how that feels."

"Of course, I understand," he looked guilty enough to burst into tears, but suddenly laughed instead.

"You know something? After I asked you out and you said yes, I immediately told him - he said he was happy for me and I got _so angry_ at him!" He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.

"He may not be the jealous type, but happy for _you_ and happy for _him_ are different things," Harold raised an eyebrow, "I saw them out together on the boardwalk earlier today - he looks like your boss is dragging him around by the short hairs!"

Harold nudged him and Jamie cracked a smile.

"I can’t imagine what dating Barb would be like. Not sure I want to imagine it…!" Jamie shook his head.

"And you're going to fight off that force of nature and try to win him over, huh?"

"Yes," Jamie replied and straightened up his posture slightly, "I was told once that love takes work. I am willing to work to win his love," he even raised a fist in front of his chest in newfound resolve, "I'll fight for it - for him! But-" Jamie grabbed Harold’s hand and squeezed it. Jamie’s hand was slender and soft, but cold.

"No more manipulating people in order to do that," Jamie declared, "it's not fair to anyone. Again, I'm sorry. And thank you for putting up with my," he waved his hands, "bizarre drama zone machinations! I hope you find somebody, Harold. You're too good a man to be alone unless you choose to be," with a last, apologetic smile, he turned and walked down the boardwalk, tracing Bill's steps.

Harold watched him go while idly playing with a quarter, rolling it back and forth through his fingers. He wondered if the buses were running this late.

**Author's Note:**

> Vaguely based on a prediction I have because I extrapolate _a lot_ from background scenes in what the youth of today write off as "filler episodes". Don't mind me.
> 
> A lot of this was also just because it's A Crime that Mr. Smiley didn't get on that bus with Mr. Frowney. _A Crime!_


End file.
